Commissioners vote down GPS release program at crowded Gaston jail

Tuesday

Nov 28, 2017 at 11:11 AMNov 28, 2017 at 12:22 PM

By Dashiell Coleman dcoleman@gastongazette.com

Gaston County commissioners will not fund an ankle bracelet-monitoring program that Sheriff Alan Cloninger said would have alleviated overcrowding at the jail. Instead, commissioners voted unanimously earlier this month to provide the sheriff with about $674,000 for work that needs to be done before the jail can be expanded.

At their meeting Nov. 14, commissioners voted 5-2 to deny the Sheriff’s Office $182,500 for personnel and equipment needed to implement the ankle bracelet program, which would have allowed some inmates to live at home while awaiting trial. Opposition to the proposal centered on fear that inmates could cut the GPS monitors off and commit crimes.

Cloninger maintained that judges would likely only grant the option to those accused of nonviolent crimes and that inmates who abused the program would be hastily captured. Under the proposal, deputies would be assigned to check in on participating inmates constantly, and an immediate response would be enacted if an ankle monitor was broken.

The sheriff had hoped to use the program for up to 100 inmates, but he said there were even more who could benefit from it. There would be about 125 inmates “who could be placed on this program immediately if the judges so chose to do that,” Cloninger said.

Several District and Superior Court judges were supportive of the plan, Cloninger said. District Attorney Locke Bell, however, opposed the idea of people serving time “sitting at home watching TV,” according to previous stories in The Gaston Gazette.

The proposal initially came before commissioners in October but a vote was postponed until this month.

“There is no certainty, and we have very little money,” said Commissioner Tom Keigher when outlining his concerns at the meeting. “What if one of these inmates that were out committed a crime? The judges and maybe some of the citizens would demand that we stop that program, especially if someone was hurt physically – or worse.”

The sheriff said he could keep a closer eye on people attached to GPS-connected devices than those released on bond.

“When (judges) give someone bond and release them on their own recognizance in court now, there’s no guarantee that person won’t go out and commit a crime,” Cloninger said. “With the ankle bracelet program we’re proposing … there’s an immediate response.”

Regardless, space at the 160,000-square-foot jail and annex remains a problem.

As of the meeting, there were 591 inmates in Gaston County custody, including 18 people being housed more than 100 miles away at the Transylvania County Jail, according to the sheriff.

There is only adequate space for 526 inmates. The sheriff said during the meeting that overcrowding has been a sustained issue for at least six months.

“I shipped 20 inmates this weekend,” Cloninger said Nov. 14. “We got to 622… We’ve made two trips to Transylvania to pick (inmates) up – two guys that made bond.”

Cloninger cautioned against problems that can result from overcrowding.

“Some people say, ‘They’re inmates at the jail,’” Cloninger said. “Well, they’re inmates to everybody but their family, and if someone gets injured in the jail because of overcrowding, then it’s on me and ultimately it could be on the county…

“I have the obligation to the people of the county and to everyone who works for me and to the inmates to try to run the safest and securest facility I can.”

Commission Chairman Chad Brown said he did not see the GPS ankle bracelets as a sustainable solution.

Only Commissioners Bob Hovis and Ronnie Worley voted in favor of the GPS monitoring program.

The sheriff has also presented as an option a nearly $7 million expansion that would allow for roughly 65 more inmates at the jail.

The money commissioners did approve Nov. 14 will pay for a priority project. Before expansion can begin, according to needs outlined by the sheriff and a study by Gastonia-based Stewart-Cooper-Newell Architects, work needs to be done to resurface showers, secure windows in pods and shore up or obtain food carts, kitchen equipment, a body scanner, a backup air compressor, a water heater and a door-control system.

Worley, who proposed the failed motion to approve the ankle bracelet program, said a fix is needed soon.

“I believe it’s incumbent on this board to address the overcrowding for a lot of reasons,” Worley said. “…I just think to do nothing is to ignore a responsibility we have.”

The sheriff also says incidents of violence have been on the rise at the jail.

In 2015, there were 71 fights, 114 in 2016 and 126 from January to mid-August this year. The violence also affects staff, the sheriff said Wednesday. There were four assaults on staff in 2015, eight in 2016, and there have been 15 assaults so far this year, Cloninger said earlier this month.

Cloninger referenced recent violence at eastern North Carolina prisons that claimed the lives of four correctional officers.

“I worry about that every day with the number of folks I’ve got at the jail,” Cloninger said at the meeting.

You can reach Dashiell Coleman at 704-869-1819 or Twitter@DashiellColeman.

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